Fourteen
by Liara-Shadowsong
Summary: Chapter 166 answered some questions, and also created new ones, particularly about the exorcist Allen Walker. A short story about Mana Walker and the Fourteenth Noah... both of him. Now with a sequel: Wish.


Disclaimer: The series D.Gray-Man is a creation of Katsura Hoshino; this humble tribute to the series is merely a work of fanfiction.

Summary: Chapter 166 answered some questions, and created new ones. A short story about Mana Walker and the Fourteenth Noah.

Author's Notes: This story, not unlike one of my previous works in Naruto, Masks, is the result of my theories and some new bit of information from the manga spawning a plotbunny that demanded to be written at once. It is somewhat disjoint, because it came to me as a series of scenes, not a continuous flow of plot from beginning to end. I've separated the parts with line breaks to make it easier to read… essentially, each break represents a time skip or just a general change in scene. I wrote this piece for my own enjoyment; I posted it for yours. Please review, if only to say a sentence or two, just so I can get some idea of what you thought of it.

(Also, the site keeps deleting my page breaks and otherwise changing around the document; I hope it stays the way I wrote it this time. If you see something seriously wrong, tell me please, either in a review or a PM, so that I can fix it.)

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Simon and Alexander Highlander ran down the cobbled street, chased by demons as though out of some hellish nightmare. But no nightmare, the Earl of Millennium had his sights set on the younger brother, little Alex.

Cross-shaped stigmata broke out along the young man's forehead, bleeding freely. "Stop chasing us! We've done nothing to you! All I want…" his breath hitched; he'd been running too long to keep it up much farther, "…all I want is to be able to live a peaceful life with my big brother, and not be caught up in your war… Is that too much to ask?!"

The monsters, the Akuma, paused for a moment as the power of the Clan of Noah seized them and tried to drag them back away from the escaping teen and his elder brother. But the Fourteenth Noah had little control over his abilities over Akuma; his powers were barely awake enough to track, and he scarcely knew what he was doing in this setting.

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In the end, his little brother shoved Simon out of sight, into a nearby quarry, as the Akuma caught up with them. Alexander died that day, but he maintained his few secrets, the ones that may one day cause the Earl to fall.

Alexander's body was burned almost beyond recognition by the attacks, as the blood bullets were taking far too long to do their work. So burned was the corpse that the dark scales of one arm went unnoticed, and the Earl only verified that the boy was dead, not bringing the body back with him for further analysis. Why bother? He was a Fourteenth Noah, the one who was never loyal to the Earl of Millennium, and he was dead. The Earl would never know that this Fourteenth, like those before him, was an accommodator to Innocence.

Simon survived, and he buried the body. Before long, the site would become another of those among the long lists of places with phenomenon that may indicate the presence of Innocence. But a little bit of miraculous healing and a lack of Akuma was not enough to push the site to the top of the list for investigation. Especially not since those few reports dried up entirely with the birth of a little boy whose apparently deformed arm contained the very cause of the phenomenon.

Simon also carried another secret, the Melodies of the Musician. Before he died, Alexander had taught him all the songs he knew that would control the Ark, the songs that had begun appearing in his dreams as his Memories of Noah began to awaken.

"_Brother, there are a hundred and nine souls compatible with Innocence in this world, and fourteen with the Memories of Noah. This never changes; the constant presence of both Exorcists and Noah Clan is due to reincarnation of these souls. If the Earl catches up to us and kills me, I'll come back to you, I promise. Look for me."_

And look Simon did. And wait. And travel.

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Mana, the bread given by God to the Hebrews as they wandered in the desert. Walker, a common enough name, but one that exemplified what he would be doing until the Fourteenth returned, until his little brother came back to him.

And thus, Mana Walker, traveling performer, found work at circuses all across Europe and parts of the rest of the world. Simon Highlander, like his brother, was never heard from again.

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It was years later, just as he was about to move on yet again, that the re-christened Mana Walker met a most interesting person.

Mana's beloved but elderly dog had died earlier that day, no doubt with assistance from someone with a grudge against Mana himself. He couldn't officially do anything, of course, unless he wanted to be run out of town without pay by the perpetrator and allies. He desperately needed that money, but Mana would find a way to … pay back what had happened, in his own way, of course.

What was intriguing was the little boy who his pet had apparently befriended just the day before. Mana just couldn't bring himself to cry; he'd lost so much in his life already that it seemed his tears had dried up long ago. But the boy was crying.

Alex had always loved dogs. Cats too, when they weren't acting royally aloof. And the boy's hand… red and scaly, with the cross-shaped glow of Innocence on its back. Not quite like Alexander's own arm, but close. Too close to be merely coincidence, in Mana's opinion.

Regardless of whether or not similarities were the result of coincidence or of insane hope or a true connection between the long-dead Alex and little Allen, an untrained accommodator staying in one place was a bad idea. The poor orphaned boy needed a home, and Mana was leaving town the next day. He was very lonely, having been afraid to let anyone get too close since his brother's death.

Both Mana and little Allen left town the next day, December 25. Mana officially adopted the boy as his son, Allen Walker, in the next town they reached.

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They were a happy family, at least for a few years. The Walkers never had a lot of money or material possessions, but they always had enough to get by, and they were content with their life.

Mana re-taught the Melodies to Allen, knowing he would need them one day. They would come to him on their own, of course, but for that to happen his Memories would have to start truly awakening, and he would quickly become a target for the Earl of Millennium. Mana didn't want that to happen, not before he could also use his Innocence, at any rate. And that was not something Mana could teach – he was no Exorcist.

Then Mana fell ill. When he began to cough up blood, he knew his time was near. Consumption, the doctors said. In those days, not even the Black Order had a cure for the disease later called tuberculosis, sadly. The irony of it all was that the Earl had never successfully found him in hiding, had never discovered his change of name as he faded into the shadows, yet Simon/Mana was to die without ever seeing Alexander/Allen grow up.

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Mana tried to get Allen safely to the Black Order before his time came, so that he would be cared for despite a lack of other family, and so he could at least learn to use his Innocence.

He never made it.

Fortunately, one of the Order's Generals, the infamous Cross Marian, had been a sometimes-friend of Mana in the days before he adopted Allen. He'd taken it upon himself to meet the Walkers halfway, though he never mentioned a word of it to Headquarters.

Cross was two days too late to see his former friend alive. When he arrived, a cursed and bleeding Allen was sobbing in the graveyard where his father had been buried, the only evidence of Mana's brief return just hours before being Allen's still-bleeding curse mark and white hair, bleached by trauma.

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_Mana floated, insubstantial, next to Allen. The boy was clutching at the cross of his grave, sobbing._

_His grave._

_He was dead. He hadn't managed to get Allen to the Order before his illness claimed his life._

_So, what was he now? A ghost, waiting to move on until his son, once brother, was safe?_

_The shadows should not look like that, swirling, almost alive._

_From the ground rose the Earl of Millennium._

"_Mana Walker… shall I resurrect him for you?"_

'_Nooo! Allen, don't listen to him! He can't return the dead to life, just seal their souls into monsters! Say no, get out of here, find someone with a Rose Cross on their coat and show them your arm… nooooo, Allen…'_

_To no avail, not even a Noah could hear an ordinary ghost with an unaided ear, except under special circumstances._

_Mana felt himself being pulled into a skeletal façade of a body._

"_How dare you … turn me into an Akuma…?" He could already feel the instincts of the Akuma surfacing, telling him he must kill the boy before him; wear his skin as a disguise as he committed heinous crimes in the name of the Earl of Millennium._

_No. He could feel something disrupting the hold over his actions. Weak, but present… Allen's Memories attempting to surface._

"_Allen! How could you do this?! I curse you! I curse you, Allen Walker!" A gift, a curse. With his Innocence, with his Memories, it should be more a gift, an aid against the Earl and his Akuma. He had no choice but to attack, Allen's power over the Akuma was not strong enough to override it entirely, but he could keep from killing at least for now, give a small gift and a little piece of himself to help protect his son._

_Allen's Innocence was awake, seemingly moving of its own volition. Mana could scarcely hear what he was saying, "Run… Run, Father!!" sounded so far away. Allen's arm, the Innocence invocated had never before looked so beautiful._

"_Allen…I…love you… Please destroy me." Darkness closed around Mana._

-

Light. He didn't know where he was, but Mana somehow knew that his once sometimes-friend, General Cross Marian, had found Allen. He was an often-unpleasant man, but at least he could keep Allen safe from the Earl and his Akuma, teach him how to use his Innocence like Mana never could.

It would be all right.

_The End?_

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And that's all she wrote. Seriously, it's a one-shot and unlikely to have a sequel. Don't get me wrong, I won't say never, but don't hold your breath for more.

Also, if any readers here are waiting on more from Fox's Wings… I hope you don't have to wait much longer. I had a truly horrible case of writer's block, coupled with a lot of schoolwork. I've managed to get a bit written, though, and I think the writer's block is mostly worked through, so it shouldn't be too long before that one's back on track.

Thanks for reading!


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